Lorde will return to performing next February in Christchurch, before shows in Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne and Perth in March.

The acclaimed 24-year-old will then head to the US, Canada, the UK and Europe in a monster 43-date worldwide tour.

“This is gonna be such a sick tour,” she announced to fans in an email.

“This is, thrillingly, something of an intimate tour. Theatres and green fields rather than arenas.”

The pop star announced her tour and album on the day of the northern hemisphere’s summer solstice, in keeping with the theme of her comeback single Solar Power, released a fortnight ago.

The 12-song record, also titled Solar Power, will be released on August 20.

“The album is a celebration of the natural world, an attempt at immortalising the deep, transcendent feelings I have when I’m outdoors. In times of heartache, grief, deep love or confusion, I look to the natural world for answers.

“I’ve learnt to breathe out, and tune in. This is what came through,” she said.

The Aucklander won a Grammy for her first record, Pure Heroine, released in 2013 at age 16.

She’s since grown to become the region’s biggest artist, releasing sophomore record Melodrama in 2017 to critical acclaim and amassing 7.6 million fans on Instagram.

In her new announcement, Lorde, real name Ella Yelich-O’Connor, said she would be staying off social media.

“I’m not gonna be returning to social media this cycle, outside of the occasional temporary post,” she said.

“Being off social media makes me feel incredible … and I’d love to maintain feeling that good.”

The new music has been a long time coming: in 2019, Lorde wrote a note to her millions of fans saying the heartbreaking death of her dog, Pearl, who “brought an immeasurable amount of joy and purpose into my world”, would delay her third album.

Last year, she asked Kiwis to vote in the 2020 election, won by Jacinda Ardern’s Labour party.

Between work on her music, Lorde has also produced a photo book called “Going South” about a trip to Antarctica.